Way to go, Joe. You were nobody's first choice to step into a volatile situation at Newcastle, with players' confidence at an all-time low, fans' feelings running dangerously high and the famous continental-style management hierarchy operating from a bunker, so obviously it was a smart move to scandalise and alienate the local press on day one.

What looked a short-term appointment last week could now be getting shorter by the day, though at least Joe Kinnear's hilarious strop (if you still haven't read it go to theguardian.com/football) could be put down to the exceptional circumstances. It's not every day you get a job in a circus, after all.

Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger, on the other hand, have 34 years of top-level experience between them at their present clubs and they, too, appear to have grown so used to getting their own way they stamp their feet in annoyance when confronted with anything they cannot control.

Ferguson has just threatened to speak even less to the media than he already does, because he is furious with himself for saying Chelsea are getting on a bit. 'I never said they were too old,' he insisted at a recent press conference, pressing for a correction but only succeeding in protesting too much. 'You lot said that, so you only have yourselves to blame. What I said was that they were an experienced team. I said, and it's true, that when players go into their thirties you don't get a lot of improvement. Whereas the United team that won the title last season has several young players who can still get better.'

Got that? Any suggestion that Chelsea might be over the hill is a wilful misrepresentation of what Ferguson said. Not in any way his mistake. The bloke has only been in charge since Margaret Thatcher was in her pomp, after all, how is he supposed to know how the press works? This is not a defence of spin - there just doesn't happen to be a world of difference between what Ferguson said and how it was reported. He is spitting the dummy over semantics. One suspects this has less to do with newspaper headlines than Chelsea's promising start to the season, or United being behind Liverpool.

But at least Ferguson did not say he felt physically sick, which as unsporting reactions to unexpected home defeats go is almost as bad as confusing Hull City with West Brom. Sour grapes in the immediate aftermath of Hull's stirring performance at the Emirates could just about be excused, though when Wenger was still moaning two days later it just sounded plain sour. Especially when he expressly stated, the day before Porto were rolled over 4-0 in a one-sided match much more to Wenger's liking, that Champions League opponents know they have a responsibility to play, whereas Hull's first responsibility was not to lose.

The famous Wenger habit of missing crucial incidents appears suddenly to have been extended to whole games. In the match most people saw last week, Hull adventurously turned up with three up front and then bravely bounced back from an own goal, playing with such panache throughout that the home crowd applauded them off at the end. Wenger seems unable to work out how this could have happened. If Arsenal lost they must have been kicked off the park or stifled by a 10-man defence. It was as if Hull simply had no right to win. Wenger's reputation as a fair-minded devotee of attacking football has just taken a knock, as will his reputation as a manager if he cannot sort out his defence.

There could be all sorts of reasons why Wenger and Ferguson are feeling more pressure than usual, from good starts made by Chelsea, Liverpool and Aston Villa, to the money at Manchester City and not forgetting Michel Platini's desire to limit the number of countries that regularly send four teams to the Champions League, but good manners cost nothing and the Premier League's elder statesmen ought to set a better example. At the moment they are being shamed by newcomers such as Luiz Felipe Scolari, Phil Brown and Paul Ince, all under pressure in different ways yet all looking happy in the Premier League.

As well they might. It is not such a bad place to be and it is not as if anyone has asked them to sort out Newcastle or Tottenham. Or even Fenerbahce, where Luis Aragonés is struggling to win over his new public after making a poor start to the Turkish season on returning to club football following his European Championship-winning exploits with Spain.

Well known for his sunny disposition, Aragonés came up with a quite stunning response during a press conference in which his methods were being questioned. 'It's easy for you to have views about football,' he told reporters with a sigh. 'But you will never find me talking about journalism.' Bet Kinnear wishes he had thought of that now. Instead, he could soon find north-east reporters adopting the opposite position. 'It's easy for you to have views on journalism, Joe. But we're supposed to be here to talk about football.'

For Fabio Capello's next trick, he will attempt to bring the excitement generated in Zagreb last month to dreary old Wembley.

Before a writ arrives from the Football Association it should be stressed that Wembley itself is not dreary any more, just the atmosphere when England are playing.

That, Capello reckons, is what has been holding back England as an international force, the reason the players have not been performing for their country as well as they play for their clubs. 'We play better away from home,' Capello says. 'I have noticed that already. We can play with confidence away, whereas at Wembley there is doubt. The fans grow restless and unhappy and the doubt becomes more pronounced.'

Fair enough, but now for the $64,000 question, or perhaps the £6m-a-year question. What can Capello do to change all that? England struggling to impress their own fans at Wembley is a story older than the hills, though Capello stunned the locals in Croatia so give him a chance. Kazakhstan at home on Saturday may appear the ideal occasion for England to bask in the reflected glory of their 4-1 triumph in Zagreb, but Capello wants none of it.

'I hope the Croatia result can help with our confidence and make the crowd more enthused,' he says. 'But really we have to forget about Zagreb now because it is in the past. You must focus on every game you play, that is my philosophy. We have six points and we must play every remaining game like it is a cup final. It is important to win, but you do that by focusing on your next game, not your last.'

It is just as well Capello did not mention taking each game as it comes, otherwise it might be suspected someone at the FA is teaching him cliches as a joke. His English is coming on well, as it happens, and he has proved he can organise and motivate his players, but what does he know about Kazakhstan? 'Mainly that when Croatia played them they scored on 13 minutes and it was easy after that. They are not strong like Croatia, but you need to concentrate. It is very easy to lose concentration when you have won an important match and it is followed by an easy game, and if you do that the second game will not be easy at all. It always helps to score a goal quickly if you can. If you don't, it can become a problem, as we discovered against Andorra.'

Capello names his squad this evening and it would appear Michael Owen has not done enough to be in it, unless he makes a timely case for himself this afternoon at Everton. Injuries permitting, Emile Heskey definitely will be. The Wigan striker was outstanding in Croatia and, though Capello has no hesitation in naming Marco van Basten and Ruud van Nistelrooy as the best centre-forwards he worked with in his club career, he has clearly been impressed by a player often labelled a dinosaur. 'I don't agree that Heskey is an old-fashioned centre-forward, they used to be big and stationary,' Capello says. 'Heskey is modern - big, but fast with good movement.'

Finally, while David James may be on the verge of ejection from Owen's fantasy football team, his national manager is more relaxed about him letting in 10 goals in two matches. 'I saw some of those games on television,' Capello says. 'Enough to know that it is impossible for the keeper when opponents score 10 in two games. The defence has to do more. It wasn't as if there were just 10 chances and they were all taken. I counted about 20 chances to score.'

Time for a Spurs ban

Tottenham fans' vilification of Sol Campbell has become an annual event and is an affront to a civilised society. Spurs should have seen it coming and acted much more decisively to make sure their supporters behaved themselves at Portsmouth, instead of joining the police in the general cop-out that it is impossible to arrest a whole away end.

If Spurs cannot or will not control their own supporters, there is only one way to reinforce the message that these sickening chants will not be tolerated and that is to deny the club entry to the next available competition, let's say the FA Cup. Perfectly simple, really. Well, that's what everyone said when it was Croatia supporters abusing Emile Heskey.